Turning Every Team Member into a Top Performer with Ava

Why Most Sales Teams Follow a Performance Curve

Every sales manager knows that no two team members perform at the same level. In most teams, performance follows what is known as the Performance Distribution Curve. A few star performers consistently exceed expectations, a small group struggle to keep up and the majority fall into the “average” middle. This curve is a natural outcome of human variability, but it presents a major challenge for sales leaders. The real question is this: how do you lift the overall performance of the team rather than relying on a handful of stars?

Traditional approaches such as extra coaching, more reporting or additional shadowing only go so far. Managers are spread thin across competing priorities. Time and resources rarely allow for every rep to receive the personalized attention needed to shift their performance upward. The result is that the curve remains static and the team never achieves its true potential.

As the Gartner performance curve shows, the right interventions can make a measurable difference. When sales coaching is inconsistent or ineffective, most reps remain clustered in the middle or bottom third of the distribution. However, when strong and consistent coaching is introduced, the entire curve shifts to the right. Average performers improve, struggling reps move into the middle, and the number of top performers increases. This demonstrates that performance outcomes are not fixed. With the right tools and support, teams can fundamentally change the shape of their distribution curve.

For sales managers this insight is powerful. It highlights that the challenge is not simply about identifying stars and supporting laggards. The real opportunity lies in shifting the middle of the curve, where the largest proportion of your team sits. Even small improvements across this group translate into significant overall gains. By following the evidence in the Gartner curve and rethinking how performance is coached, leaders can unlock far greater potential than traditional approaches allow.

The Cost of Average Performance

The difference between top and average reps is not marginal. Research shows that the performance gap between them can be as high as three times in revenue contribution. That means every time a middle performer misses quota your business is leaving money on the table.

For sales managers this creates constant tension. You know what your best reps are doing differently: better territory planning, sharper execution during customer visits and stronger follow through on opportunities. The problem is scaling that across the whole team. Coaching sessions compete with admin work, field ride alongs get postponed and managers end up in reactive mode. Meanwhile the gap between high and low performers widens.

If left unchecked this imbalance leads to missed targets, lower morale, higher attrition and reduced ability to respond quickly to competition. It is not just about performance management. It is about the long term health and resilience of the business.

Introducing Ava Teams as Your Always-On Coach

This is where Ava Teams, Aforza’s Vertical AI for sales managers, comes in. Ava Teams was designed specifically to help managers shift the performance distribution curve. Instead of a small group of stars carrying the load, Ava Teams empowers every member of the team to operate like your best performers.

How does it work? Ava Teams acts as the world’s top Commercial Excellence Coach, embedded directly into your team’s daily workflow. Each rep gets access to Ava’s guidance and automation, helping them plan better visits, execute tasks more efficiently and follow up with precision. Ava does not just advise. It actually takes action by scheduling calls, logging customer notes, creating orders or raising service tickets when needed.

For the manager this means you can extend your impact far beyond one to one coaching sessions. Ava ensures that reps stay on track, receive continuous micro coaching and focus on the activities that drive results. Whether it is nudging a rep to reschedule a missed visit, prompting smarter product recommendations or surfacing insights in real time, Ava Teams creates consistency across the board.

At only $25 per user per month for up to 10 team members, Ava Teams is accessible, scalable and designed to deliver rapid ROI. It is about giving every rep the chance to perform at their peak without increasing your workload.

Proof from the Field: AG Barr’s Results

The impact of Ava has already been proven in the field. At AG Barr, one of the UK’s most recognizable drinks companies, sales reps described Ava as “like having their sales manager with them all of the time.” Instead of waiting for feedback days or weeks later, Ava provided instant coaching in the moment.

The results were remarkable. AG Barr reported a 50 percent increase in productivity across their sales teams. This was not just about saving time. It was about enabling reps to cover more accounts, have higher quality interactions with customers and ultimately drive more revenue.

For managers this represented a breakthrough. Instead of worrying whether every rep was executing consistently, they could trust Ava to embed best practices in every store visit and sales interaction. The performance distribution curve began to shift with more reps achieving results that were once only expected from top performers.

This case shows the true potential of Ava Teams: scaling the qualities of your best reps across the entire team.

How Sales Managers Can Get Started

For sales managers the message is clear. The days of accepting the performance distribution curve as a fixed reality are over. With Ava Teams you now have the tools to reshape your team’s curve by reducing the performance gap and unlocking the potential of every rep.

Here are three recommendations to get started:

By following these steps you will transform your role from firefighting daily issues to orchestrating a consistently high performing team. Ava Teams allows you to scale your impact, free up time for strategic leadership and most importantly ensure every rep has the chance to shine.

The performance distribution curve does not have to be a limitation. With Ava Teams it becomes a growth strategy.